Monday, 30 July 2012

101 Things To Do before I die

Staying at a cottage on holiday recently I picked up a paperback called 101 Things To Do Before You Die by Richard Horne. Clearly I am the wrong demographic. This book is for 17 year old lads.
It has 99 totally self centred target activities and perhaps two altruistic ones. You
know the kind of thing ...bungee jumping, get a tattoo, get arrested, master poker
and win big in casino. Want to know about the exception? Save someone's
life...
Not saying that a bit of adventure isn't called for...had always
wanted to go up in a balloon and managed to do that this year...But how's this - the only entry under "nature" was to see a volcano erupting...

tamed rain forest

But what
would be appropriate for a woman in the last ten years of working life? I
started to think. I am not interested in the boys own things though I would keep
saving someone's life of course. I haven't got even the tiniest adrenalin gene. My list would
contain:

Take part in a river clean up
Donate blood 50 times...12 more
to go...had so many interruptions
Stay in a yurt ...but there would have to be a
mattress!
Stay in an ice hotel
Snorkel on a coral reef...
Explore a rain forest
Sign up 5
more people to give blood
Sign up 5 bone marrow donors ...it means chatting
up under 40 year old men who are really in short supply....
Get involved in a
woodland preservation project
Help create a community garden
Train to be a
recycling volunteer
Inspire people to get on the internet and change their
lives
Sing a solo and feel good about it
Find a new craft and really
explore it...how many things have
I picked up and discarded over the
years
Acquire a regular drawing habit

7 comments:

Gosh, Susan, for someone who hasn't got an adrenalin gene some of your choices are fairly adventurous by my standards! I totally lack both ambition and a sense of adventure, which probably makes me a very boring person, but I am actually very content with my life and have no burning ambition to do anything else. Does that make me a very sad person? I really don't know!

My husband, by the way, could probably come up with a list of a thousand things he wants to do. Really not sure why we're so happy together - opposites obviously do attract!

Those are good! You've inspired me to think in a more altruistic manner. Previously I had stuff like, parachute out of an airplane, visit all fifty states, zipline through a rainforest in Costa Rica. Maybe I should help create a community garden.

You have a talent for drawing me in and giving me the want to write more, when there are numerous boring chores I should be getting on with. However you have started me daydreaming...I want to dance in the Rio de Janerio carnival and be part of the New Orleans Mardi GrasI want to take a camper van trip across New ZealandI want to take a reindeer sleigh and a Husky run in LaplandI want everyone I contact to feel cared for and heardI want my dog to have a happy and interesting lifeI want to walk along a white beach into a crystal blue sea with no reserve I want to learn to ski and ice skateI want to learn how to forgive and FORGETI want to know what it feels like to be slimI want to be rememberedI think we should call this a work in progress, something to strive for. For sure I had better get started before its too late!!